Who’s #12 for the Saints?

[Dr Spaceman]

Having come to the realisation that our great skipper is out for a significant amount of time, many of us have searched for positives to come out of the disappointment.

Most on here, including myself, have pointed to things such as finding other ways to win, fast tracked improvement in players, especially young ones, by increased responsibility etc.

Now call me an optimist, but I also think this may assist us in our finals campaign – assuming of course that we make it.

I have little doubt that if we do play a major role in September then we will at some stage face off against the Cats; perhaps on the last day.

Now Geelong have played us many times with Nick on board and have on occasions managed to curtail him; including the 2009 GF (notwithstanding that Nick was almost certainly carrying an injury). So yes they do have tactics which they are confident can reduce Nick’s impact.

However if they have to deal with a Nick fuelled Saints this year it won’t be until the business end when Sheep Stations are on the line.

It means they won’t have faced Nick for around 12 months and won’t have faced a fit Nick for some 15 months.

I know it’s not much, and it relies on Roo coming back fit, in form, and not having any set backs, but in the circumstances it may work out in our favour that the Cats don’t get a “sighterâ€

[Wrote for Luck]

Like boxer James J Braddock injuring his right arm forced to work on the docks with only his left, won the title fight only because he had a surprise package new powerful left hand weapon. At the end of the year if Nick gets shut down we'll know what to do.